Produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, INSIDE EDGE is an Amazon Prime's 10 episode web-series of 40-50 min. each that takes you behind the scenes or into the inside world of Cricket - the most popular sport in our country since last century.
Modelled on IPL - the Indian Premier League pointing towards many key personalities and famous happenings related with the event or sport, the series has its share of shortcomings but is also a well-attempted one showcasing technical finesses along with an engaging writing that mostly keeps you on the edge, asking you to go for the next episode at once, justifying its title as INSIDE EDGE.
Made without any budget constraints, the series directed by Karan Anshuman fearlessly talks about the corruption in the game, the world of betting, match-fixing, mutual rivalry within the players, the underdogs rising due to their talent, their suppression, the regional politics involved and much more with a good dosage of drama, sex and glamour featuring known names in its star-cast.
The well-written narration keeps you engrossed, especially in the first few episodes and its biggest merit remains its stylized look, cinematography, art-direction, well-defined characters and very fine editing giving every episode its much required, entertaining edge. Though it doesn’t focus on the on-field game much, but still those sequences of the game being played on the ground never give you a feeling of watching something mediocre as normally seen in our sports based films.
The series has some superfine performances to praise including names of Sanjay Suri, Richa Chadha, Manu Rishi, Angad Bedi, Sayani Gupta, Tanuj Virwani, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Amit Sial and more. Though Richa Chadha does tend to over-react at times but she overall makes a kill as the vulnerable team owner talking through her eyes. However Vivek Oberoi yet again does it in a highly over the top manner that doesn’t look real affecting many key sequences.
Adding to the flaws, a few events in the series do make you feel as if you are watching a Madhur Bhandarkar kind of film hurriedly trying to encash every real news related to the subject. Many unanswered questions are also left as it is moving on to the next twist or event. Plus the language seems to be forced with added abuses and so do all the bold sexual insertions which could have been avoided or dealt differently knowing the fact that the subject of Cricket is the favourite of teenagers too and they are sure going to watch the series even if it has got the A rating. For instance, the very first scene of the first episode is of a sexual act, which literally puts you off as you don’t expect the series on cricket and its politics to start in that manner.
However, overall INSIDE EDGE does make a positive connect and impact together and deserves to be seen as a mature content. It certainly would have got more praises if was not made intentionally poking many known names, avoiding the unrequired bold sequences and having a better villain too.
Rating : 3.5 / 5
